1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a print control system and method, and more particularly to print job management.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, print systems have rapidly becoming popular. A typical print system has an editing unit such as a workstation and a print control system such as a print server, both connected to a network. The print control system, in turn, has one or more printers connected either directly or via a network. Upon receiving a print job from the editing unit, the print control system interprets it and sends the image data of each page to the printer.
A print job is usually coded in a page description language (PDL). Upon receiving a print job, the print control system interprets the job, generates the print data (image data) of each page, processes (compresses, saves, and decompresses) it, and then sends it to a printer.
However, a conventional print control system has managed print jobs on a job basis in most cases. This results in the problems described below. One problem is that, even when a plurality of print jobs use the same page data (that is, the same image data), they cannot share it. This means that they execute the same processing and, in addition, save and store the same data. Thus, job management is inefficient.
The user in a conventional print control system finds it difficult to process print jobs on a page basis (e.g., the users can neither change nor add pages). This requires the user to modify the job on an editing unit and then re-submit the modified print job to the print control system.
In addition, when the user wants to change the page sequence or the number of copies of a particular page, he must modify the print job and then re-submit it as described above.
Systems which save print data for later use in re-printing are found in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 2-213930, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 5-201075, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 6-24106, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 6-40092, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 7-186461. However, these systems do not manage print jobs on a job basis and on a page basis, and therefore do not allow a plurality of print jobs to share print data.
Also found in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 6-106813 is a print control system which stores the print data of each page to allow the user to change the page sequence (or to select a desired page) when reprinting. However, this system does not manage print jobs both on a job basis and on a page basis, and therefore a plurality of print jobs cannot share print data. In this conventional system, the user cannot select a desired page from a plurality of print jobs for printing in any sequence.
As described above, a conventional print control system manages print jobs only on a job basis in most cases; a print control system featuring page-basis operation provides only limited functions. As print systems have become more and more popular these days, there has been a long felt need for a system which satisfies sophisticated and diversified user requirements.